The Finnish scene solidifies it's position further as Team Menace.fi enter the fray
Another day, another org adds a Team Fortress 2 squad to its arsenal. Today is the turn of Finland’s Team Menace, a name more commonly associated with Counter-Strike Source’s AWPs and Flashbangs than Team Fortress 2’s Ubers and Stickybombs.
Finland is undoubtedly one of the heartlands of our European competitive scene; hell those quasi-Eskimos are just good at every damn game. So it makes sense to see well known organisations like Menace get as excited about TF2 as the batshit crazy community and I say more power to their elbow.
But what doesn’t make sense is the unexplainable desire of the Finnish people to put salt on candy… you monsters!
Casual racism aside, I must admit everything about this acquisition reeks of sensibility with both the players and the org having a seemingly realistic outlook and long term goals. The lucky pups who have become the object of Menace’s affections are the thoroughbred Finns at Cardus.
Admittedly Cardus were not a team on my radar, being a mid-division outfit composed largely of journeymen who have been playing together for a few season in ETF2L. Recent months has seen them begin actively retooling their roster in a move to a more serious approach under the guidance of the mysterious "kentt". I was pleasantly surprised to find out that kentt is in fact none other than Oskari Pihlajamäki A.K.A. m0re of the exquisite m0rehud. One really does learn something new every day.
The refurbishment has brought in some well-known players including former Imperial meatshot dispenser Jari "Rake" Hyvönen and former Power Gaming/Team Refuse medic Olli "Paavi" Kettunen as demoman. Combined with the existing core of players early results are looking promising and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see these guys bumped a few divisions in the upcoming ETF2L season; collect those screenshots mates.
Statement from Team Menace.fi CEO Teijo "Warrior" Sepponen
A long time after thinking about adding a Team Fortress 2 squad, we decided to have a chat with Team Cardus. After lengthy discussions with the team we realised that Team Cardus would be perfect addition to our organisation. We have already spoken about future plans with the team and because of that there might be possibility to see our Team Fortress 2 Squad in action on MAXLAN in France, but our current main target is to train hard for Assembly Summer and represent our squad with a strong performance there.
So they won’t be competing as a team at Winter Assembly this February but no doubt we will see a few of their players knocking about the Kaapelitehdas when the time comes. It would be great to see them at MAXLAN, an event which is rapidly gaining support amongst the Premiership tier, but I’d be just as happy to see them make to Summer Assembly.
Although in the past the average shelf life of a top level Finnish Team Fortress 2 team has been significantly shorter than 6 months, I have a feeling these guys could go the distance. Oh shi... I jinxed it!
Team Menace.fi are
Oskari "kentt" Pihlajamäki
Olli "Paavi" Kettunen
Santtu "Santtu" Salminen
Jari "Rake" Hyvönen
Akseli "Aksu" Haltio
Esko "Valquis" Takkinen
Originally published on Cadred.org on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:07:00 +0000 by James J. McDonnell.
Archived from Team Fortress 2 - 2 Team Menace as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of Cadred.org's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and Cadred.org; reposted for historical reference.